Bitter Wine
by SummerCrystals
Summary: A story dissecting the relationship between Chinatsu and Eiri. Part of a series of OC with mild MC/OC undertones stories. Inspired by LJ's 5Things comm. After the Winter War, the alcohol Chinatsu used to enjoy now only leaves a bitter taste in her mouth


**Author's Note:** Another story centering around my OC, Fuyutsuki Chinatsu. Chinatsu is 4th seat in 11th Division, and in this story, is openly involved in a relationship with Madarame Ikkaku. If this pairing or MC/OC fanfiction in general bothers you, I suggest you don't read this story. That being said, this could almost be considered a "follow up" piece to my other Chinatsu fic, A Thousand Summers. I suggest you read both it and my sister's (who I share this account with) piece Silver Lining, as it introduces the other character featured in this story, Mizutani Eiri. All of the OC fics on this account were written first and foremost for the two of us, who had all the knowledge of the things necessary to know about these two, which are not included in this piece. For a complete description of both Chinatsu and Eiri, I suggest you visit our profile. If that is too much trouble, please feel free to skip over this piece. I know such a format of storytelling can be quite troublesome. Sorry...! (sweatdrops)  
That said, please enjoy this slightly more angsty piece.  
Oh! One thing needed to know, Eiri has a (unrequited) thing for Gin, as was quite distraught after he left. As for what follows after...well, this story offers the end of that tale.

_**Bitter Wine**_

**Five Things that would not Have Happened Had Fuyutsuki Chinatsu not Met Mizutani Eiri**

1. Chinatsu staggers in her shoes, the heels making her sway and tilt like a ship in a storm. She leans too far to the left; the right, nearly falling into the gutter at one point before -barely- righting herself again.

Her dress swishes around her legs, and the low back makes her spine cold. She misses the security of pants, the comfort of a T-shirt. If she had to fight now, she would be showing off her panties to the world.

Her earrings drag down her earlobes, and she constantly fidgets with her necklace, never content with where it sits.

She has never felt more uncomfortable….or beautiful.

* * *

2. She sits at a bar, one of the many that are housed within the walls of the Seireitei. It has been many years since the Winter War--many years, and many things have changed.

She plays with the hem of her Taichou's haori; pushes back a stray hair that has fallen loose from her long ponytail. Her hands lay cupped around the glass in front of her, and she brings it up to her lips for a drink.

(She thinks of Kyouraku-taichou, happily drunk and serenading his beloved Fukutaichou--Nanao is a widow now, their only child a bitter boy of eleven.

She remembers Mizutani Eiri, sobbing into her arms the night Ichimaru Gin left. Remembers cleaning up the vomit that stained her tatami mats, afterwards.)

She sets the glass down.

* * *

3. When Eiri staggers in, obviously drunk, the first instinct Chinatsu has is to laugh. She has never seen the girl drunk; never thought she would. And so it was with a laugh caught in her throat that she first saw the tears on the blond girl's face.

In the minutes--hours--after, when the whole world narrowed to Eiri's sobbing; retching; aching form and the memory of the three Taichou ascending to the sky and leaving the ones who loved them behind, Chinatsu begins to understand how lucky she is.

Eiri had always told her how blessed she was that she had someone she loved, who loved her back.

Until now, Chinatsu never grasped how painful it was for the girls who were not so fortunate.

The girls like Momo…like Eiri.

Like Eiri, who had loved her Taichou since who knew when. Who had loved him, though she would always deny that fact, and could never allow herself to be with him. Out of "respect"--out of the fact that he was Ichimaru Gin-taichou and she was simply Mizutani Eiri; third seat.

Who was now forever beyond her reach, whether she followed after him or not.

Up until now, Chinatsu never knew how lucky she had it…nor how much she pitied the girl beside her.

* * *

4. Laughter echoes across the open air. She is running full tilt; her muscles are weakened from the mirth and make her slow. He catches up to her, pulls her into a tight embrace.

His eyes meet hers, a smile stretched wide across both their faces. He pulls her close to him, and kisses her more gently than anyone knew was possible for Madarame Ikkaku.

Across the grass, Momo smiles while Renji groans. Rangiku watches them with a contented smirk on her face. Yumichika pretends not to notice while Nana and Miyako notice a bit too much.

The picnic blanket under them is spread with bento only half-eaten. The sun shines down warmly on their black shihakusho, and the wind lightly teases the girls' (and Yumichika's) hair.

The two walk over hand in hand, and Chinatsu's grin is wider than it has ever been in years.

* * *

5. Chinatsu faces Eiri across the field of battle. The blond girl's sword is drawn and pointed at her.

Chinatsu feels her heart break at the same time she releases Chigirimaru. If she were anyone else, she would not fight this girl--but she is 11th, and she will not back down from any fight. Not even from this fight.

In the moments between the first strike and the last, a million emotions flash through Chinatsu's mind. Anger, than Eiri had chosen the cruel Gin instead of her friends. Fear, for her friends out on the battlefield, as well as for the outcome of her own battle here. And a lament, for the future together that had been lost.

If Fuyutsuki Chinatsu had not met Mizutani Eiri, hundreds of things would not have come to pass. She would not be Ikkaku's girlfriend. She would not be as confident in herself and her womanhood. The blond girl opposite her had given her so much happiness, so much wonder and joyous days.

And yet, tempered in all the sunlit mornings, were the cold, bitter nights, when Eiri would cry out for the man she loved; the man she loved who had left her.

And it is in this; in this inability to leave the man she loved (looking back, Chinatsu could never find the heart to blame her; not her, nor Hinamori Momo who had stood beside Aizen and sacrificed her life for him when her Shirou-chan had struck out--what they did was out of a love so deep that there was no moving past it), that their fate had been sealed.

If Fuyutsuki Chinatsu had not met Mizutani Eiri, she would not have had to kill her best friend.

((by: PS))


End file.
